Amazon's Information Management Systems
Amazon.com used several systems for website administration and purchasing process management in 1995 for security reasons. At the end of 1995, the company's Digital Alpha Server was hosting a large number of databases. In the year 2000, the organization reconsidered renovating the whole structure in order to improve its performance. It invested more than $200 million on the new system's procurement and integration. The framework included Epiphany research tools, Manumatic transportation, and a new Oracle database management system (Hottovy, 2011).Improvement of Supply of Products
The company's quest for improvement of its supply of products led the management to seal a deal with Exelon for integration of business to business system. The primary development of the company included Simple Storage Service and Amazon.com web service. The improvement of its information management systems saw the company maintain large stocks for millions of its clients for quick delivery. Amazon's web service has become an international stage for merchants and individuals who need to sell and market their merchandises via a scalable, reliable and stout web service dominant in the online business. The company's IMS also experiences some challenges that get addressed as quickly as possible. Every second, many customers use the system to search for products and also order them online. Due to the heavy traffic, the system needs to be reliable, fast and secure and Amazon's is best at all these. The customer relation management system of the company is responsible for taking the information concerning the clients through data mining and searching and later storing it in databases. Amazon.com's system provides information on all the products customers are ordering and also those items that are not selling. Such information is critical in decision making and also in analyzing the company's performance. The company's IMS is built in such a way that it allows smart Analysis Search for purposes of tracking fraudsters (Manjoo, 2011).Does IMS give the company the competitive advantage over their competition?
The information management system of Amazon.com gives it a competitive advantage over its key rivals. For instance, the company allows customers to create profiles in its system which they use in ordering any product they wish to purchase. The system also offers customers personalized features like those that permit them to customize their profiles with the tools of the cart and wish list through the transaction processing system. These are features that only Amazon offers and its competitors like Apple, Samsung and Wal-Mart only envision but are yet to actualize (Favernovel Research, 2013).Furthermore, Amazon's IMS is more efficient than those of its competitors since it permits one-click purchase. The online giant firm has a one-click ordering process that is a personalized shopping service and a transaction mechanism that is easy to use. It also has an effective email communication system which makes it easier and quick to communicate with customers and employees. Unlike its competitors, its direct shopping through the system across the globe gives it a competitive advantage over its key rivals. Customers who had purchased some items earlier can order the product with a click of a single button without filling order forms since the system stores the customers' data. The ability of the IMS of Amazon to automatically provide the information of registered customers helps it serve more customers in an efficient and quick manner unlike its rivals. The system is run on a secured server which means that the customers' information is secured from any form of cyber-attack (Favernovel Research, 2013). Amazon also has a secure debit/credit card payment system that is integrated into a secured server software. The customers' sensitive data including the debit/credit card numbers is encrypted so as to secure the customer's data which could get hacked by cyber-attackers (Couple, 2013; Kline, 2015). However, the company still needs to invest more funds towards the development of a system that allows customers to exchange personal information to other willing clients without necessarily being stored in Amazon.com's database. Doing this will ensure that the privacy of customers is respected.How does IMS help coordinate between supply chain partners?
Supply chain management is important in coordinating between the organization, customers, and retailers. CRM system usually controls the supply chain in any organization. Amazon uses Oracle software to manage its resources. The systems have a big database which stores all the customer-related data. The client ordering procedure is automated. After an order is placed in the system, it is automated in such a way that the system will find the nearest center for distribution or delivery to the customer who placed the order. The system increases the process of order fulfilment with tracking of the order as well as minimization of any distribution errors (Hottovy, 2011). This coordination is essential in ensuring that the supply chain of the product continues and all products are delivered as ordered without any delay.How IMS helps to monitor orders and inventory levels and satisfy the customer.
IMS is helpful in the follow-up to the levels of inventory and orders to ensure that the customer is satisfied. The system automatically updates itself after the customers make purchases from the company. This ensures that the stock list is updated so that the customers do not miss out on any product(s) they intend to purchase. The system also notifies the management on the product that is regularly purchased so that it can stock more of it in the company's stores. The system also collects the information regarding buyer purchase patterns. This ensures that the inventory levels of the organization are high so as to satisfy the needs of the customers (Manjoo, 2011).The company's IMS also effectively monitors the orders placed by clients. It does this through an order handling system that takes care of the transaction records. The system also uses secure transaction method which conveys all delivery instruction to the delivery systems so that the shipment can be executed. It also monitors the order until it is delivered in a timely manner to the customer to ensure customer satisfaction (Hottovy, 2011).Why managing information is equally or more important than moving products.
Information management plays a key role in any organization. An organization with reliable, accurate and timely information has an economic advantage over its competitors. The management of information needs to be treated as an asset to the company even more than the moving products since information management determines how operations in the organization are conducted (Jacks et al., 2011). Skillful management of an organization's data improves the efficiency of the organization and business through the delivery of measurable competitive advantages like optimization of the supplier, customer confidence, and mitigation of risk, internal transparency and making of data-driven decisions. For the organization to be able to deliver, quality, timely and trusted products, there is need of an effective information system (Jacks et al., 2011).References
Couple, K. (October 15, 2013). Amazon forges CPG competitive advantages. Morning News Beat. Retrieved on February 26, 2017 from http://www.morningnewsbeat.com/News/Detail/42890/2013-10-15/
Favernovel Research (2013). Amazon: The Hidden Empire. Uncovering the business Strategies of the E-Commerce giant. Retrieved on February 26, 2017 from https://innovate.fabernovel.com/work/amazon-com-the-hidden-empire/
Hottovy, R. (2011) Amazon.com AMZN Hare Stock Focus Morningstar Stock Investor, 11(2), 8-9.
Jacks, T. et al. (2011) A framework for the impact of IS on organizational performance. Business Process Manager Journal, 17(5), pp. 846-870.
Kline, D.B. (2015). Amazon’s sustainable competitive advantage: The Company has built up a size and scale that makes it very hard to compete with. Retrieved on February 26, 2017 from https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/05/18/amazons-sustainable-competitive-advantage.aspx
Manjoo, F. (October 19, 2011). The Great Tech War of 2012: Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon battle for the future of the innovation economy. Fast Company. Retrieved on February 26, 2017 from https://www.fastcompany.com/1784824/great-tech-war-2012
